Psalms · Chapter 11

V. 1. Ye-Mine enemies.

Verse 1. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye] Some of David’s friends seem to have given him this advice when they saw Saul bent on his destruction: “Flee as a bird to your mountain;” you have not a moment to lose; your ruin is determined; escape for your life; get off as swiftly as possible to the hill-country, to some of those inaccessible fortresses best known to yourself; and hide yourself there from the cruelty of Saul. To which advice he answers, “In the Lord put I my trust,” shall I act as if I were conscious of evil, and that my wicked deeds were likely to be discovered? Or shall I act as one who believes he is forsaken of the protection of the Almighty? No: I put my trust in him, and I am sure I shall never be confounded.

Verse 1. In the Lord put I my trust — It is not in fortresses or strong holds that I place my confidence, but only in the Lord, in his power, and love, and faithfulness. How say ye to my soul — Ye, my friends; Flee as a bird to your mountain? — Fly away, as a timorous bird before the fowler, to a place of safety. Thus “the Christian, like David, in perilous times, should make God his fortress, and continue doing his duty in his station; he should not, at the instigation of those about him, like a poor, silly, timorous, inconstant bird, either fly for refuge to the devices of worldly wisdom, or desert his post, and retire into solitude, while he can serve the cause in which he is engaged. Nor, indeed, is there any mountain on earth, out of the reach of care or trouble. Temptations are everywhere, and so is the grace of God.” — Horne.

Verse 1. Flee as a bird to your mountain, the hill country of Judea. When hiding from Saul, and when the wicked bent their bow against him, it was prudent to shun the snares.

1. Flee as a bird, etc.—Literally, Flee, bird, to your mountain. The ancient versions read, as a bird. The particle of comparison is implied. This advice is given to the psalmist as the only measure of safety, at a time of imminent peril. There is no ground for assuming that the imperilled one here is an ideal person. The universal application of the psalm to all innocent sufferers is not at all impaired by admitting a real historic origin, which verses 1-3 clearly require. The direct flight of a bird from the valley to its mountain home, when frightened, is a marked though common event, probably the occasion of a proverb by the Hebrews. How say ye—This is not a rejection of the advice given, as some have taught, as though David scorned to yield to circumstances and save his life by flight. Both in the time of Saul and Absalom he did fly “to the mountains.” It is no honour to our faith in God to despise danger, or refuse lawful means to save life, when duty so permits. Jesus and his apostles repeatedly retired before their enemies. But David here only professes higher and more essential trust in Jehovah than in any natural means of defence or escape.

V. 2. For lo-David having directed his speech to his enemies, now turns it to God, and pours out before him his complaints. Ready-They lay designs for my destruction and make all things ready to execute them.

Verse 2. For, lo, the wicked bend their bow] Perhaps these are more of the words of his advisers: Every thing is ready for thy destruction: the arrow that is to pierce thy heart is already set on the bow-string; and the person who hopes to despatch thee is concealed in ambush.

Verse 2. For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, &c. — Many eminent commentators consider these also as the words of David’s friends, representing to him, as a motive for his flight, the extreme danger he was in, which they compare to that of a bird when a fowler, having already fixed his eye upon it, had fitted his arrow to the string, and lying close, was taking aim at it, intending to shoot it. Just so, they signified, Saul and his counsellors had laid their plot on a sudden to destroy David. See Patrick and Dodd.

2. Here is given the reason for the above advice of David’s friends— namely, the character and attitude of his enemies. Make ready—Fix, place upon the string. Privily—Literally, in darkness; that is, treacherously. See Saul’s conduct towards David, 1 Samuel 19:11. The imagery is that of an archer in ambush, with drawn bow and with an assassin’s purpose, awaiting his victim.

V. 3. Foundations-Piety, justice, fidelity, and mercy, which are the pillars or foundations of a state or kingdom. What-The condition of all righteous men will be desperate.

Verse 3. If the foundations be destroyed] If Saul, who is the vicegerent of God, has cast aside his fear, and now regards neither truth nor justice, a righteous man has no security for his life. This is at present thy case; therefore flee! They have utterly destroyed the foundations; (of truth and equity;) what can righteousness now effect? Kimchi supposes this refers to the priests who were murdered by Doeg, at the command of Saul. The priests are destroyed, the preservers of knowledge and truth; the Divine worship is overthrown; and what can the righteous man work? These I think to be also the words of David’s advisers. To all of which he answers:—

Verse 3. If the foundations be destroyed, &c. — This also is thought to be spoken by the same persons, discouraging David from making any further resistance, by the consideration that the foundations of religion and virtue were subverted, and therefore all was over, and what they urged, could a man, engaged in the most righteous designs, hope to do, when that was the case. Bishop Patrick paraphrases the words thus, “If men have no regard to laws and public decrees, which are the foundation of human society, but will boldly violate all known and standing rules of justice and truth; what can the righteous do? — What security can an honest man have? or what should he do, but make haste away from the place where they act so arbitrarily, and are so perfidious?”

Ver. 3. If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Laws, covenants, and promises are the foundations. Though Saul might violate these, yet David had one resource, as in the next verse.

3. If foundations—Not princes and nobles as pillars of the State, but laws and institutions of justice. Psalm 75:3; 82:5. When these are overthrown the righteous have no appeal. What can the righteous do— As if he would say, Having no appeal to justice or law, nothing remains but to seek safety by flight.

V. 4. Temple-In heaven; which is mentioned as an evidence of his glorious majesty, of his sovereign power and dominion over all men and things, and of his accurate inspection into all men and their actions. Throne-Where he sits to examine all causes, and to give righteous sentence according to every man’s works. Try-He throughly discerns all men, their most inward and secret actions: and therefore he sees and will reward my innocency, notwithstanding all the calumnies of mine enemies; and withal he sees all their secret designs, and will discover and defeat them.

Verse 4. The Lord is in his holy temple] He is still to be sought and found in the place where he has registered his name. Though the priests be destroyed, the God in whose worship they were employed still lives, and is to be found in his temple by his upright worshippers. And he tries the heart and the reins of both sinners and saints. Nothing can pass without his notice. I may expect his presence in the temple; he has not promised to meet me in the mountain.

Verse 4. The Lord is in his holy temple — The psalmist, having, in the first verse, declared that his trust was in Jehovah, and having mentioned the advice of his friends, is supposed to be now proceeding to show the fitness and propriety of his trust, notwithstanding the seeming desperate situation of affairs. His words, considered as being spoken in reply to his friends, may be interpreted as follows: My answer to you is, that the world is not governed by chance, nor can men carry things just as they please; but the Lord, into whose holy palace no unjust counsels can possibly enter, who observes every thing from his temple in the heavens, and whose throne is infinitely above that of the greatest king on earth: He, I say, is the supreme and most righteous ruler of all affairs; and no mischief can be so secretly contrived, no wicked design so artfully dissembled, but it lies open before his eyes, and he sees through it. Nor need he take any pains to discover it, for at the first glance, as we speak, he perfectly discerns how all men are inclined, and looks to the very bottom of their hearts.

Ver. 4. The Lord is in his holy temple, and his throne is higher than the thrones of princes. His cares are unremitting, for his eyelids never sleep. Who then can harm the righteous?

4. The Lord is in his holy temple—His earthly temple, or tabernacle called temple, 1 Samuel 1:9; 3:3; and, by implication, is there for purposes of grace and protection to his covenant people. Throne in heaven—As the universal ruler and judge. So that on this twofold ground David rests his cause in confidence.

V. 5. Trieth-He chastens even righteous persons, yet still he loves them, and therefore will in due time deliver them. But as for the wicked, God hates them, and will severely punish them.

Verse 5. The Lord trieth the righteous] He does not abandon them; he tries them to show their faithfulness, and he afflicts them for their good. His soul hateth.] The wicked man must ever be abhorred of the Lord; and the violent man-the destroyer and murderer-his soul hateth; an expression of uncommon strength and energy: all the perfections of the Divine nature have such in abomination.

Verse 5. The Lord trieth the righteous — God may think fit to try the fidelity of him whom he knows to be upright, by many adversities, that he may afterward give him the more illustrious testimonies of his approbation and love, as well as that he may thereby correct the remaining imperfections of his character, may purge away his dross, and more thoroughly refine him for his Master’s use. But the wicked, &c., his soul hateth — Whatever success the wicked, and he that delights in doing mischief, may have for the present, it is certain God abhors his conduct, and, unless he repent, he will, without fail, severely punish him for abusing his power to oppression and violent dealing.

5. Trieth the righteous—An early and fundamental Hebrew doctrine. The trials of the righteous are not punishments for sin, but fatherly and corrective chastisements for their profit. Hebrews 12:6-8. But the wicked—Very different are the judgments of God upon the “wicked,” whom he treats as violators of his laws. See on Psalm 7:11-13.

V. 6. Rain-Send them plentifully, swiftly, and suddenly, as rain commonly falls from heaven. Snares-Grievous plagues or judgments, which are called snares, because wicked men are often surprized with them when they least expect them. And because they cannot escape them, or get out of them; but are held fast and destroyed by them. Horrible tempests-Dreadful judgments so called, in allusion to the destruction of Sodom by these means. But this he seems to speak not so much of present calamities, as of eternal punishments. This-Is their portion, and as it were the meat and drink appointed them by God.

Verse 6. Upon the wicked he shall rain] This is a manifest allusion to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Snares] Judgments shall fall upon them suddenly and unawares. Fire] Such as shall come immediately from God, and be inextinguishable. Brimstone] Melted by the fire, for their drink! This shall be the portion of their cup.

A horrible tempest] זלעפות רוח ruach zilaphoth, “the spirit of terrors.” Suffering much, and being threatened with more, they shall be filled with confusion and dismay. My old MS. has gost of stormis. See at the end. See Clarke “Psalm 11:7”. Or, the blast of destructions. This may refer to the horribly suffocating Arabian wind, called [Arabic] Smum. Mohammed, in describing his hell, says, “The wicked shall drink nothing there but hot stinking water; breathe nothing but burning winds; and eat nothing but the fruit of the tree zakon, which shall be in their bellies like burning pitch.” Hell enough!

The portion of their cup.] Cup is sometimes put for plenty, for abundance; but here it seems to be used to express the quantum of sorrow and misery which the wicked shall have on the earth. See Psalm 75:8; Isaiah 51:17, 21-23; Jeremiah 25:15; 49:12; Lamentations 4:21, 22. It is also used in reference to the afflictions of the righteous, Matthew 20:22; 26:39, 42; John 18:11. We find a similar metaphor among the heathens. The following, from Homer, Il. xxiv., ver. 525, is in point:—

JWwv gar epeklwsanto qeoi deiloisi brotoisi,

Zwein acnumenouv, autoi de tJ akhdeev eisi,

Doioi gar te piqoi katakeiatai en Diov oudei

Dwrwn, oia didwsi, kakwn, eterov de eawn,

JW men kammizav dwh Zeuv terpikeraunov,

Allote men te kakw oge kuretai, allote dJ esqlw.

Such is, alas! the god’s severe decree,

They, only they are bless’d, and only free.

Two urns by Jove’s high throne have ever stood,

The source of evil one, and one of good.

From thence the CUP of mortal man he fills:

Blessings to these; to those distributes ills.

To most he mingles both: the wretch decreed

To taste the bad unmixed, is curs’d indeed.

-POPE.

Verse 6. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, &c. — The wicked may think themselves very secure, because they are so politic, crafty, and strong; but how can they defend themselves against God, who hath innumerable ways to destroy them, when they least think of it; and can as unexpectedly overthrow all their power as, when the heavens are most serene, a sudden storm of thunder and lightning and tempestuous wind arises and spreads destruction far and near? Dr. Waterland reads the verse thus: Upon the wicked he shall rain snares: fire and brimstone, and a tempestuous wind shall be the portion of their cup. The psalmist alludes to the fire and brimstone which fell upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. By snares are meant grievous plagues or calamities, which are called snares, because wicked men are often surprised with them when they least expect it, and because they cannot escape them, or extricate themselves from them; but are held fast and destroyed by them. And God is said to rain them, to denote his sending them plentifully, swiftly, and suddenly, as rain commonly falls from heaven. And a horrible tempest — Dreadful judgments, so called in allusion to the destruction of the forementioned cities by these means. But he seems to intend this, not so much of present calamities, as of eternal punishments, to commence at the judgment of the last day. “Then the children of faithful Abraham shall behold a prospect, like that which once presented itself to the eyes of their father; when, rising early in the morning, and looking toward Sodom and Gomorrah, he beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace! Genesis 19:28. Such must be the portion of their cup who have dashed from them the cup of salvation. He, therefore, who enjoys the prosperity of the wicked here, must take with it their torment hereafter; as he who is ambitious of wearing the crown of righteousness in heaven must be content to endure tribulation upon earth.” — Horne. The reader will observe, that this expression, the portion of their cup, is a proverbial phrase in Scripture: God’s gifts and dispensations, whether pleasing or painful, consolatory or afflictive, especially the latter, being ordinarily expressed by a cup, poured out and given men to drink.

Ver. 6. The portion of their cup. St. Basil says here, this figure is taken from the architriclinus, the master of the feast, who sent to each his portion and his cup; so the Lord sends the cup of consolation to his saints, and the bitter cup to his enemies. An horrible tempest. Hebrews the spirit of terrors.

6. Rain snares, fire and brim-stone—A plain allusion to the overthrow of Sodom, Genesis 19:24, 25. The overthrow of the wicked shall, like that of Sodom, be sudden, manifestly the judgment of God, and terrible. Horrible tempest—Literally, hot wind. Probably an allusion to the sirocco. Thomson: “The eyes inflame, the lips blister, and the moisture of the body evaporates under the ceaseless application of this persecuting wind; you become languid, nervous, irritable, and despairing.” The destruction of Sodom became early an emblem of the doom of the wicked, as did afterward gehenna, or tophet. See Deuteronomy 29:23-25; Isaiah 30:33; 34:9-10; Ezekiel 38:22; Jude 1:7. To deny the application of these figures to the life to come is to deny that the Old Testament gives any allusion to a future state; that is, that the Hebrews knew as much of that subject as the heathen. Conformably to the same laws of language, before our Lord’s time the Greek paradeisov, (grove, pleasure garden,) became the emblem of the abode of the blessed after death. The portion of their cup—An idiomatic expression, (see Job 21:20,) denoting that award or portion which God himself has accurately measured out to the wicked as their just desert. Psalm 75:8; Revelation 14:10. It is also used in a good sense in Psalm 16:5; 116:13.

Verse 7. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness] He loves that which resembles himself. His countenance-his face-is ever open and unclouded to the upright. They always enjoy his salvation, and know that he is pleased with them.

The preceding verse my old MS. translates and paraphrases thus:— He sal rayne on synful, snares, fyre, brimstane, and gost of stormis. Par.—He sal rayne on synful in this werld, snares, that es wiked Lare: fyre is covatyse: brunstane, that es stynk of il werkes: and gost of stormis, that es a stormy though that es withoutyn rest in Ihesu Crist, and ay es traveld with the wynd of the devel. Or the gast of stormys, es the last depertyng of synful fra ryghtwis men, and there fyre, brunston, storm, er part of the chalyie of thaim: that es, thai ar thair part in pyne. He cals thair pyne a Cop, for ilk dampned man sal drynk of the sorow of Hel, eftir the mesure of hys Syn. Behald the pynes of wikid men: fyrst, God raynes upon thaim snares, that es qwen he suffers fals prophetes that comes in clathing of mekenes; and withinnen er wers than wolves, to desayf thaim thurgh errour. Sythen the fyre of lychery, and covatys wastes al the gude that thai haf done: eftirward for stynk of il werkes that er castyn fra Crist, and al his Halows, and then er in sentence of dome; as in a grete storme, dryven in til a pitte of Hel, to bryn in fyre withoutyn ende. This es the entent of this wers.

Ver. 7. For ryghtwis es Lord; and he lufes ryghtwisnes; evennes saw the face of hym] Yf ge ask qwy oure lorde yelded pyne to synful? lo here an answere; for he es rightwis. Als so if ge wil witt qwy he gifes ioy til gude men? Lo here an answere; for he lufed ryghtwisnes: that es, ryghtwis men, in the qwilk er many ryghtwisneses: thof ane be the ryghtwisnes of God, in the qwilk al ryghtwise men or parcenel. Evenes saw his face: that es, evenes es sene in his knawyng inence, both the partys of gud and il. This es ogayne wryches at sais, If God saf me noght, I dar say he es unryghtwis: bot thof thai say it now, qwen he suffris wryched men errour in thought, and worde and dede; thai sal noght be so hardy to speke a worde qwen he comes to dampne thaire errour. Bot who so lufes here and haldes that na unevenes may be in hym, qwam so he dampnes, or qwam so he saves, he sal have thaire myght to stand and to speke gude space. Now er swilk in a wonderful wodenes, that wenes for grete wordes to get ought of God.

The former part of this Psalm, Flee as a bird, &c., this ancient author considers as the voice of heresy inviting the true Church to go away into error; and intimates that those who were separating from haly kyrk were very pure, and unblameable in all their conduct; and that mountain or hill, as he translates it, signifies eminent virtues, of which they had an apparently good stock. So it appears that those called heretics lived then a holier life than those called halows or saints.

Verse 7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness — This is mentioned as the reason why God punishes the wicked so dreadfully. It is because, being righteous, essentially righteous, himself, he cannot but love righteousness, which is his own image stamped on the faithful, by his own Spirit. He therefore must proportionably hate wickedness, and of course show his hatred to it before the whole intelligent creation, by punishing such as live and die in the commission of it. His countenance doth behold the upright — Namely, with an eye of approbation and paternal affection, his gracious providence watching continually over and taking care of them.

7. His countenance doth behold the upright—That is, with complaisance and delight, as the verb often signifies. But most modern critics read, The upright shall behold his face, which, though either is defensible, makes a better sense, and better suits the doctrinal antithesis of the context respecting the divine treatment of the righteous and the wicked. See note on Psalm 17:15; and compare 1 John 3:2. The passage is a clear recognition of the future life.